Chris Coekin – The Altogether

The background story on the industrial setting for Chris Coekin’s The Altogeher is a UK factory that began manufacturing copper wire over one hundred and fifty years ago in 1834. Recently the factory was shut down in conjunction with the laying-off of all the employees.

Coekin has designed the book to sequence through three sections, although not easy to determine the transition as all of the photographs are bound as a gatefold. Thus you can say that his story literally, as well as metaphorically, unfolds in the telling. The folded pages have a series of poetic text that reads like an old cinema commercial, one phrase on a fold, followed by the next phrase on the following folded page.

The first series of photographs are staged individuals who play-out the work and working relationships. Perhaps tough-in-cheek as best done in the style…